Paradise Mews is a collection of two magnificent individually designed houses, The Carriage House and The Courtyard House, together with seven spacious apartments formed within an attractive listed building dating from 1814 which is full of character and light.

Solutions

The scheme comprises of two new extensions and redevelopment of an existing listed building in a highly sensitive conservation location.

FAT have been involved from early stages to assist with the feasibility study of what is arguably one of the most challenging bespoke facade projects of 2015. FAT input started with the selection of several systems as a basis and further developed several key details to support architect's intent.

The next stage was to prepare the cost plan based on our design. Several value engineering exercises were carried out to negotiate the best practical solutions to deliver the scheme to budget yet not to compromise on the aesthetic qualities and performance of the envelope.

Design development stage comprised of creating more than fifty section details of bespoke rain screen cladding. All connections were developed to LOD (level of detail) 350. Complex BIM model was set up to communicate the solutions to the project design team and to coordinate structure of the building.

Resulting hybrid of curtain wall and rain screen strategy required bespoke structural supporting system. Due to preservation requirements and logistical constraints the building structure is a mixture of reinforced concrete to the ground floor, steel frame and blockwork with timber joist on the floors above.

As a response to the site constraints, our engineers developed complex structural skeleton of cold rolled and hot rolled steel sections and lightweight aluminium bracketry. Series of bespoke solutions were introduced to make the bimetallic structure perform and to avoid galvanic corrosion. The secondary structural frame was then modeled and tested within static simulation software.

The range of measures was described on the details to deal with potential cold bridge issues. Thermal analysis and condensation study were carried out for the most complex assembly details to comply with BREEAM requirement.